If you know me, you know how shy I can get when someone new is around me. As a cheerleader you need to be confident and open to things that you might not be comfortable with.

Every cheerleader knows that when you are doing anything in a routine you have to make facials so you can sell your performance to the judges, that is the most important thing. You can have the worst routine in the whole competition, but if it looks like you are having the time of your life, it makes the routine so much better.

Ever since I was growing up, I have had the worst social anxiety, but when you are on the mat for a competition, you can’t be scared. You have to be confident as ever, not afraid to mess up and if you do, keep going and do not look back. This has probably been the best life advice I could have gotten as a kid.

A famous quote from every coach I have ever had is:

“If you feel weird while you are doing it, that means you are doing it right”

Having that as an inspiration as me never being alone making the weirdest faces on the mat makes it so much easier to be comfortable with what I am doing. Making my weird faces in front of hundreds, and maybe thousands, of people I do not know at all helps me to get out of my comfort zone around just about anybody.

I’m not the person I was when I first started cheering, but of course I’m not because I was only nine years old. But I always wonder if I would be even more shy than I am today if I never had the confidence that cheerleading gave me.